Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Lifehttp://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html
Upcoming EventsPièces de Résistance, thru Jun 28http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=121116&date=2019-05-01
This exhibition will be continuing in Spring 2019. <br />
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Notions of resistance, alongside fears and realities of oppression, resound throughout Jewish history. As a minority, Jews express their political aspirations, ideals of heroism, and yearnings of retaliation and redemption in their rituals, art, and everyday life.<br />
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Centering on coins in The Magnes Collection, this exhibition explores how the Jewish revolts against Hellenism and the Roman occupation of Palestine (Judaea Capta) echo from antiquity into the present.<br />
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"Pièces de Résistance" highlights a variety of collection items ranging from ancient coins and their replicas, to ritual objects for Purim and Hanukkah. It also prominently features art by Marc Chagall, Lazar Krestin, and Arthur Szyk that offer a modern visual representation of Jewish might in the face of persecution.http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=121116&date=2019-05-01Project “Holy Land”, thru Jun 28http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=121117&date=2019-05-01
For nearly two decades, Yaakov (Jacob) Benor-Kalter (1897-1969) traversed the Old City of Jerusalem, documenting renowned historical monuments, ambiguous subjects in familiar alleyways, and scores of “new Jews” building a new homeland. Benor-Kalter’s photographs smoothly oscillate between two worlds, and two Holy Lands, with one lens.<br />
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After immigrating from Poland to the British Mandate of Palestine, Benor-Kalter soon found work as a photographer and graphic designer, employed by both the British government and several Zionist organizations. His photographs, taken between 1923 and 1940, established a new visual record, providing a romanticized glimpse into the British colonial endeavor while offering a contemporary view of the plans to create a modern Jewish State in the region.<br />
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This exhibition presents a complete photograph portfolio and a selection of postcards featuring some of Benor-Kalter’s most captivating images.http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=121117&date=2019-05-01The Worlds of Arthur Szyk, thru Jun 28http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=121118&date=2019-05-01
Auditorium installation of high-resolution images of select collection items.<br />
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Acquired by The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in 2017 thanks to an unprecedented gift from Taube Philanthropies, the most significant collection of works by Arthur Szyk (Łódź, Poland, 1894 – New Canaan, Connecticut, 1951) is now available to the world in a public institution for the first time as the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection.<br />
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Born into a middle-class Polish Jewish family, Szyk lived a life framed by two world wars and the rise of totalitarianism in Europe. A refugee, he ultimately settled in the United States in 1940. Much of his work centered on these experiences. As a miniature artist and political caricaturist, he used motifs drawn from the Bible, history, politics, and culture to pair extraordinary craftsmanship with searing commentary on a diverse range of subjects including Judaism, the American War of Independence, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the founding of the State of Israel.<br />
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The hundreds of artworks, sketches, and painstakingly assembled illustrated books, journals, archival documents, photographs, exhibition catalogs, and memorabilia that comprise this multi-faceted collection are in the process of being examined and catalogued so that they can be made available for research, exhibition, loan, and publication. The current display of high-resolution images of select collection items in the Auditorium of The Magnes presents the public with an unprecedented insight in the many worlds of Arthur Szyk.http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=121118&date=2019-05-01Memory Objects: Judaica Collections, Global Migrations, thru Jun 28http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=123329&date=2019-05-01
The First World War (1914-1918) uprooted millions across Europe, and beyond. Many Jews left Eastern and Southern Europe, bringing with them prized personal and communal belongings. In an attempt to rescue precious heritage from imminent destruction, these “memory objects” often ended up with museums, collectors, and art dealers in the West.<br />
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Siegfried S. Strauss (1893-1969) began collecting Jewish objects in Germany in 1913, and continued through the rise of the Nazi regime, whose anti-Semitic policies forced Jewish collectors to find temporary shelters for their possessions. Before he was interned in Buchenwald in 1938, Strauss secured safe passage for his collection, moving it to England. Once released, he followed it there, and later brought it to the United States, first to New York, and later to Los Angeles.<br />
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In 1968, The Magnes acquired more than four hundred ritual objects, books, and manuscripts from the Siegfried S. Strauss collection, as well as a detailed inventory, which reflected Strauss’s knowledge of the materials (excerpts of this original inventory are included in the exhibition texts). These objects comprise the foundational Judaica holdings of The Magnes.http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=123329&date=2019-05-01Family Workshop: Kaleidoscope Making, May 5http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=124033&date=2019-05-05
Join this month’s Family Workshop at the Hearst Museum! Make your own kaleidoscope and learn how changes in vision can affect your perception of reality. This is a drop-in workshop for all ages. Bring the whole family for this activity included free with museum admission.<br />
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Find out more about events at the Hearst Museum by going to hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/events.http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=124033&date=2019-05-05In Global Transit Forced Migration of Jews and Other Refugees (1940s – 1960s), May 20http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=125825&date=2019-05-20
Against the backdrop of ongoing debates about global migration and its conse-quences, the German Historical Institute Washington and its Pacific regional office have organized a series of conferences on the history of forced migration and the experiences of refugees in collaboration with the German Historical Institute London and the Beijing and Delhi offices of the Max Weber Foundation. Following the opening conference in Delhi last year, the series resumes in Berkeley, May 20–22, 2019.<br />
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What does it mean for people driven from their homes when they can find only temporary refuge? What it is like to spend years “in transit” with no prospect of permanent settle-ment, much less return home? What does “everyday life” mean for forced migrants who might have to relocate once again on short notice? What knowledge do they need to survive? How is that knowledge shared? How do refugees restart their lives once they have put the experience of transit behind them?<br />
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These questions are as pertinent today, as upwards of 65 million people live as refugees, as they were in during the era of Nazi hegemony and the early postwar decades. The Jews who fled Nazi persecution often had to make their way to safety in stages, moving from one country to another in pursuit of the opportunity to settle permanently. The musi-cian and composer Ruth Schönthal, for example, left Austria and, via Berlin, Stockholm, and Moscow, eventually made her way to Mexico, where she was able to remain after 1945. For many other Jewish refugees, by contrast, the end of the war meant the resump-tion of life in transit. Those who had found wartime sanctuary in Shanghai, Iran, and India joined millions of other refugees – including displaced persons, expellees, and decoloni-zation migrants – in a search for someplace they could call home. The conference In Glob-al Transit: Forced Migration of Jews and Other Refugees (1940s–1960s) is bringing together more than 30 leading researchers from Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Great Britain, India, Mexico, and the United States to explore the transit experience and thereby open new perspectives into the history of forced migration.<br />
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In Global Transit takes as its point of departure a fundamental shift of focus. As Simone Lässig, director of the German Historical Institute Washington and organizer of the conference, explains, “research on Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution has concentrated on their final destinations, above all the United States, Britain, and Palestine. The countries of the Global South, where many found protection but rarely permanent homes, have been largely overlooked, as has the fact that many Jewish refugees found themselves on the move again after 1945 and ended up spending a substantial portion of their lives in transit.”<br />
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Berkeley is a particularly fitting venue to bring together experts on the history of forced migration, as the Bay Area has offered a home to countless refugees from across the world over the past century.<br />
<br />
Bringing a historical dimension to topics of present-day debate is one of the core objectives of the Max Weber Foundation. Through its institutes in Beirut, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Warsaw, and Washington, the foundation supports advanced research in the social scienc-es and humanities. It has recently established offices in Berkeley, Delhi, and Beijing to open new avenues for international scholarly dialogue and coloration especially on the migration topic.<br />
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For information and the In Global Transit program: https://www.ghi-dc.org/events-conferences/event-history/2019/conferences/in-global-transit.html?L=0http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=125825&date=2019-05-20In Global Transit Forced Migration of Jews and Other Refugees (1940s – 1960s), May 21http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=125826&date=2019-05-21
Against the backdrop of ongoing debates about global migration and its conse-quences, the German Historical Institute Washington and its Pacific regional office have organized a series of conferences on the history of forced migration and the experiences of refugees in collaboration with the German Historical Institute London and the Beijing and Delhi offices of the Max Weber Foundation. Following the opening conference in Delhi last year, the series resumes in Berkeley, May 20–22, 2019.<br />
<br />
What does it mean for people driven from their homes when they can find only temporary refuge? What it is like to spend years “in transit” with no prospect of permanent settle-ment, much less return home? What does “everyday life” mean for forced migrants who might have to relocate once again on short notice? What knowledge do they need to survive? How is that knowledge shared? How do refugees restart their lives once they have put the experience of transit behind them?<br />
<br />
These questions are as pertinent today, as upwards of 65 million people live as refugees, as they were in during the era of Nazi hegemony and the early postwar decades. The Jews who fled Nazi persecution often had to make their way to safety in stages, moving from one country to another in pursuit of the opportunity to settle permanently. The musi-cian and composer Ruth Schönthal, for example, left Austria and, via Berlin, Stockholm, and Moscow, eventually made her way to Mexico, where she was able to remain after 1945. For many other Jewish refugees, by contrast, the end of the war meant the resump-tion of life in transit. Those who had found wartime sanctuary in Shanghai, Iran, and India joined millions of other refugees – including displaced persons, expellees, and decoloni-zation migrants – in a search for someplace they could call home. The conference In Glob-al Transit: Forced Migration of Jews and Other Refugees (1940s–1960s) is bringing together more than 30 leading researchers from Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Great Britain, India, Mexico, and the United States to explore the transit experience and thereby open new perspectives into the history of forced migration.<br />
<br />
In Global Transit takes as its point of departure a fundamental shift of focus. As Simone Lässig, director of the German Historical Institute Washington and organizer of the conference, explains, “research on Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution has concentrated on their final destinations, above all the United States, Britain, and Palestine. The countries of the Global South, where many found protection but rarely permanent homes, have been largely overlooked, as has the fact that many Jewish refugees found themselves on the move again after 1945 and ended up spending a substantial portion of their lives in transit.”<br />
<br />
Berkeley is a particularly fitting venue to bring together experts on the history of forced migration, as the Bay Area has offered a home to countless refugees from across the world over the past century.<br />
<br />
Bringing a historical dimension to topics of present-day debate is one of the core objectives of the Max Weber Foundation. Through its institutes in Beirut, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Warsaw, and Washington, the foundation supports advanced research in the social scienc-es and humanities. It has recently established offices in Berkeley, Delhi, and Beijing to open new avenues for international scholarly dialogue and coloration especially on the migration topic.<br />
<br />
For information and the In Global Transit program: https://www.ghi-dc.org/events-conferences/event-history/2019/conferences/in-global-transit.html?L=0http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=125826&date=2019-05-21In Global Transit Forced Migration of Jews and Other Refugees (1940s – 1960s), May 22http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=125827&date=2019-05-22
Against the backdrop of ongoing debates about global migration and its conse-quences, the German Historical Institute Washington and its Pacific regional office have organized a series of conferences on the history of forced migration and the experiences of refugees in collaboration with the German Historical Institute London and the Beijing and Delhi offices of the Max Weber Foundation. Following the opening conference in Delhi last year, the series resumes in Berkeley, May 20–22, 2019.<br />
<br />
What does it mean for people driven from their homes when they can find only temporary refuge? What it is like to spend years “in transit” with no prospect of permanent settle-ment, much less return home? What does “everyday life” mean for forced migrants who might have to relocate once again on short notice? What knowledge do they need to survive? How is that knowledge shared? How do refugees restart their lives once they have put the experience of transit behind them?<br />
<br />
These questions are as pertinent today, as upwards of 65 million people live as refugees, as they were in during the era of Nazi hegemony and the early postwar decades. The Jews who fled Nazi persecution often had to make their way to safety in stages, moving from one country to another in pursuit of the opportunity to settle permanently. The musi-cian and composer Ruth Schönthal, for example, left Austria and, via Berlin, Stockholm, and Moscow, eventually made her way to Mexico, where she was able to remain after 1945. For many other Jewish refugees, by contrast, the end of the war meant the resump-tion of life in transit. Those who had found wartime sanctuary in Shanghai, Iran, and India joined millions of other refugees – including displaced persons, expellees, and decoloni-zation migrants – in a search for someplace they could call home. The conference In Glob-al Transit: Forced Migration of Jews and Other Refugees (1940s–1960s) is bringing together more than 30 leading researchers from Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Great Britain, India, Mexico, and the United States to explore the transit experience and thereby open new perspectives into the history of forced migration.<br />
<br />
In Global Transit takes as its point of departure a fundamental shift of focus. As Simone Lässig, director of the German Historical Institute Washington and organizer of the conference, explains, “research on Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution has concentrated on their final destinations, above all the United States, Britain, and Palestine. The countries of the Global South, where many found protection but rarely permanent homes, have been largely overlooked, as has the fact that many Jewish refugees found themselves on the move again after 1945 and ended up spending a substantial portion of their lives in transit.”<br />
<br />
Berkeley is a particularly fitting venue to bring together experts on the history of forced migration, as the Bay Area has offered a home to countless refugees from across the world over the past century.<br />
<br />
Bringing a historical dimension to topics of present-day debate is one of the core objectives of the Max Weber Foundation. Through its institutes in Beirut, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Warsaw, and Washington, the foundation supports advanced research in the social scienc-es and humanities. It has recently established offices in Berkeley, Delhi, and Beijing to open new avenues for international scholarly dialogue and coloration especially on the migration topic.<br />
<br />
For information and the In Global Transit program: https://www.ghi-dc.org/events-conferences/event-history/2019/conferences/in-global-transit.html?L=0http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/Magnes.html?event_ID=125827&date=2019-05-22